A Strategic Retreat (6.1)

Lumina's phone started going off. Xander grabbed it since he was the only one in the living room. He quickly clicked the notification, and his expression shifted.

He walked into the kitchen to see Nia, Leon, Lumina, and Fenix waiting there for him.

"Get ready guys. Team B is about to go in."

It didn't take them long to get found, to be honest. If they were being truly honest, they were absolutely horrid at secretly sneaking into places without causing a ruckus. Xander simply sighed in resignation at the sight in front of him.

"I should be paid for this shit." He groaned. There were ten dead guards, three mortally wounded, and two captured.

"And Lumina, out of all of you, I expected you to be the most mature. Why did you go and kill nine of them? Do you know how much harder this is gonna be? And you two, why did you hurt them, and now they won't-Where's Fenix?" Xander cut himself off in the middle of the rant, after realizing the second youngest of Group B was gone.

He facepalmed and groaned loudly. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Hey Dad, rant later, look for runaway ginger now," Leon said as he took the lead and walked straight into a statue.

"Leon, I'm never following your lead unless I want death." Xander said before helping the boy up and sighing, "I should really get paid for babysitting weird, unstable maniacs."

"You can't get paid if you're one of us." Lumina grinned, trying to throw an arm around his shoulder, but giving up since he was too tall.

"Touche."

Team A was in a panic, "Where the hell are they?" Kaedan cursed as he tried not to die in the gown he was wearing.

"Oh my god, Kaedan, you're wearing clothes under that, just take the gown off!" Owen yelled as they sprinted around a corner.

"Excuse me?! Even if dresses aren't my thing, this thing was expensive as hell, I am not wasting my money!" Kaedan yelled back.

Mina went running out but Risále grabbed her before she did.

Mina looked at her confused. She silently pointed at a guard who had wandered there.

Owen made a "Shush" symbol and slowly crept up along the wall. As soon as the guard walked past, he tackled the man-Or was it a boy? He was kind of light…

He pulled the mask off. Owen stared down at the ginger boy. "What the hell?" He said.

Fenix did jazz hands as he was pinned on the ground by Owen sitting on him. "Surprise?" He asked.

Kaedan sighed. "I just remembered that I left my easily annoyed boyfriend to babysit four little maniacs. What have I done?"

"You do realize you're dead when Xander finds you, right?" Mina asked grinning.

"Oh no." Fenix had a look of horror on his face. He looked to Owen for help.

"Sorry, Firebird, you're on your own for this one." He shrugged, not wanting to feel Xander's protective Dad-wrath. As they turned the corner, Kaedan quickly ushered them back, catching a glimpse of many guards.

"Shit...There are too many. We need to split up." Kaedan cursed.

"Wait no. No, no-no-no. I've seen enough movies to know splitting up means inevitable death. Kaedan, we will die." Risále warned.

"Risále, those are horror movies. Also, what else do you suggest we do, jump out the window to our own doom?" Kaedan shot back.

"Can we?" Risále asked, looking very excited.

"Risále, no-" Kaedan cut off Mina who was about to tell off Risále.

"We have no choice. Owen and Fenix, Mina and Risále, and I'll go alone. Everyone, try to find a different way to the main foyer. Make sure you have your phone on." He said.

Mina should have known that in the worst situations, her luck would just make things worse, "...Lacey?" She called out to the familiar looking person standing across from her, holding a sword pointed at her.

"Do not call me so familiarly, traitor!" The woman yelled back, "You left all of this behind! You left me!" She launched forward and Mina didn't hesitate to block her with a sword she herself had found.

She sighed, "Lacey, what you never seemed to understand was that just because I was fond of you doesn't mean I belonged to you. We weren't even friends really, and don't act surprised. You treated me like I was an object, you hated me because I was what you wanted to be all your life."

"I loved you!" Lacey yelled back.

Mina shook her head, kicking the woman back, noticing that Risále was fighting off a much larger man. She had to end this quickly to help Risále, "No," She said firmly, "You loved the idea of me. Never me."

Before she could even attempt to knock the other woman out, she heard a scream from behind her.

As she looked at Risále, she could tell something was wrong. The smile on her face was wolfish, crazed, and she was moving viciously at the man, striving to not just kill but to tear him to shreds. There was hatred in her eyes, and her eyes-

Her eyes were blood red.

She pinned the man down to the ground using the sword, striking straight through his abdomen, and finally noticed Mina looking at her, terrified, "Hello, Princess. I believe we've never had a chance to meet when I was alive."

"Who…" Mina knew who this had to have been. There were always rumors and ghost stories but she never in her life would have thought that it would be true.

"You know who I am, Princess. I've been in her head for a while now. Don't worry, I won't kill her. I need her alive or else I fade away, too. Now, I think you should run along, because this is something I wouldn't want royalty to witness."

"Says the one out of the two of us who's the former Queen," Mina shot back, noticing Lacey was still on the ground, terrified. She glared at her, "Get out of here if you want to live, Lacey. I won't hesitate to end your life with my own hands if you try to hurt me and my friends."

The woman dashed off, and Risále-well, Not Risále laughed, "Well, well, well, maybe I underestimated your ruthlessness, Princess. You'd make a fine Queen for this Sector, if you had wanted it. I believe you have other things to do, you should get going."

Mina wanted to stay, but she knew that Not Risále was right, "What about her? Is this…Hurting her?"

"Me being here? Oh, no. She's just vaguely annoyed that I'm cohabiting her mind. Don't worry about your pretty little head, and tell that to your scientist boy, too. She'll be fine. I'll get her out of here in mostly one piece."

Mina turned away, and looked back over her shoulder, "If you get her hurt, Apocalypse. Just know, I will spare you no mercy."

Apocalypse laughed, "Oh, you can certainly try, Princess, all of you. But I can say for certain I am stronger and more skilled than any of you. Don't worry, it won't come to that," She paused for a moment, "But a piece of advice for you, trust Leon Song. He's right when he says he can't directly tell you what's happening but he's your best shot of getting through this."

"I—What? What are you…How did you know—"

"Not the time, Princess. Now, get out," Her voice hardened.

"But I—"

"I said, get out!" 

Mina left.

Apocalypse turned to the man writhing on the ground, blood trickling from his mouth and she dragged her nails down his face, "You really thought I wouldn't recognize you, old man? That I'd forget what you did to me? Chaewon and Elliot? The pain you put them through for trying to save me?"

The man choked, "Y-Your Highness, I thought…We thought you were-" She slammed her foot onto his face, breaking his nose.

"Save it. I don't have time for you so your death will be quicker than I had anticipated. That doesn't mean I can't make it just as painful as what they went through. You're getting off lucky, old man," She whispered, "If I killed you the way you all killed me, well…Just don't think about it."

And with that, she pulled the sword out and plunged it back down.

Meanwhile, "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Fenix whispered, staring at the main hall which was filled with soldiers putting on armor.

"Why us?" Owen groaned as they took in the sight in front of them.

"Because this world is shitty," Fenix responded, the annoyance in his voice was obvious. The two stayed silent, thinking of a plan. "Well, have any of them seen you yet?" Fenix asked. Owen shook his head.

"What's the plan?" Owen asked, understanding that Fenix was coming up with some ideas.

"Well, they've already seen me. So here's the idea. They haven't seen you yet, so can you act as a new pageboy or something? You pretend that you have to get me to help because I'm injured." Fenix explained.

"Okay, I'm cool with that...except how are you injured?" Owen asked, beginning to get suspicious.

"Simple." Fenix pulled out his dagger and stabbed himself, not enough to incapacitate him, but enough that it was obvious that he was injured.

"Oh my god, you fucking idiot. What the fuck," Owen just stared at him in horror, ready to punch the living daylights out of him.

"You can murder me later. Now's our chance." Fenix urged him, grabbing onto his hand.

"Was this your guys' genius plan?" Someone called from behind them, and they both whirled around to see a familiar face, "Really you two?" Nia shook her head disapprovingly. "Is this the best you could come up with?"

"This was not my fault!" Owen groaned. "He did this to himself and didn't warn me beforehand."

"What? It seemed like a good idea! It also made it more realistic and harder for them to know we were lying." Fenix complained.

"Hm...You're right. You know what, that's not as dumb as it seems." Nia pulled out her own dagger.

And she stabbed her side.

"Oh, fucking son of a bitch, this hurts like hell sent a parade of demons to stomp me the fuck down." Nia hissed.

Fenix looked at her confused while Owen looked like he was going to faint.

"Idiots. I'm surrounded by absolute. Idiots." He muttered.

"You should probably get that looked at," A pretty androgynous voice called out, and all three of them whirled around to see a young girl with deep tan skin and wavy dark brown hair, around the same age as them as crouched nearby. Nia was the first to move, quickly lunging at her and pinning her down, knife to her throat.

Owen let out a breath, "Girl, where the hell did you even come from?" And the girl simply shrugged, smiling cheerfully as though she wasn't being threatened by a blade to her neck.

"Eh, girl works. Though just a person works as well. You guys made quite the ruckus on the way in. It wasn't hard to follow suit. Besides, I don't think we're here for very different reasons," She said, "So how about we make this pleasant?"

"What do you mean by that?" Nia asked roughly.

The girl smiled, spreading her hands in a sign of peace, "My name is Val. You help me get my guy out of here, I'll get you all out of here."

Fenix tapped Nia on the shoulder, "Relax. It's three on one. If they try anything, we can take them," He said, and Nia sighed, leaning back and glaring at the girl in front of her, "Why are you helping us?" He asked.

Val slipped their hand into their pocket, and Nia was on edge again. But when they brought it back down, they were holding a letter, "I believe your sister wants to talk to you, Fenix Callahan."

Fenix froze.

"It could be a trap," Nia whispered.

Val smiled gently, "I really don't want to hurt you guys. I work with Mirabella. If you want to know what the contents are, she's telling her brother not to worry and that they'll meet soon. She plans on attending the Sector 2 Ball with another rogue group. She's been looking for you for years and she hopes that she can be beside you again."

Fenix carefully took the letter and pried it open, hands shaking as he read the letter. Then, he looked back up, determined, "We can trust them. Who do you need us to help you get?"

"Thank you," Val bowed their head slightly, "He's been missing for a while, and we've been searching for him. His name is Hyunwoo."